Monthly Archives: May 2009

As technology becomes more sophisticated, so do methods of flirtation. Flirting helps us to feel someone out, and in its most primal sense- determine whether that person is an ideal sexual partner. Deeply engrained in the human psyche, people flirt to signal amorous interest and sexual availability. And, given today’s advanced channels of communication, email, IM, SMS, hormone-driven teenagers and young adults alike are not only disclosing their intimate desires through text messages but also virtually exposing themselves through sexts (sexually explicit messages or photos sent electronically, primarily between cell phones).

Why Call When You Can Flirtext?

With over 500 billion SMS messages sent a year, flirtexting is a very popular way for young people to flirt. Self-proclaimed textperts Olivia Baniuszewicz and Debra Goldstein and authors of the book Flirtexting: How To Text Your Way To His Heart say:

When it comes to communicating, our generation has shorter attention spans and greater expectations. Gone are the days when we spent time getting to know one another over hours of intimate phone conversations. Today we say it all within 160 characters of writing space. Now when you give a boy your number, you’ll soon receive a “1 new text message” light on your cell.

Flirtexting certainly has its obvious enticements; it gives us time to think about what we want to say, it removes the pressure of having to commit to lengthy phone conversations- and it provides a comfortable physical distance that not only helps us pace the development of a relationship, but also permits us to flirt with multiple people over SMS messages.

In an age where people get married later, have children later, and like to keep options open in the search for true love- a well played flirtext can work well in one’s favour. But for those who become too dependent on texting, relationships can just as easily begin in a text as they can end in one. People increasingly avoid direct confrontations, preferring to shield themselves against too many questions, and of course having to face or dish out rejection.

‘Sexting’: Legal problem, awareness issue, or, modern-day flirting?

A survey conducted in 2008 by TRU, the global leader in tween, teen and twenty-somethings research, has caused quite a media stir concerning sexting. The survey was fielded online to a total of 1, 280 respondents- 653 teens (ages 13-19) and 627 young adults (20-26). The results found that one in five teenagers have shared nude or semi-nude photos of themselves with their cell phone or online.

Six Pennsylvania high school students are facing serious criminal charges after three teenage girls allegedly took nude and semi-nude photos of each other and shared them with male classmates via their cell phones. One of the boys had his phone turned on in class. Against school policy, when an administrator came to confiscate the phone, they found a naked picture of one of the girls. The police were immediately called in and the investigation lead to more inappropriate photos. The female students aged 14 to 15 years old, face charges of manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography while the boys, who are 16 and 17, face charges of possession source.

Many people argue that these charges are too severe. Parents and educators should better monitor their kids’ cell phone use and play a more active role in increasing awareness about the possible consequences and dangers of sexting. But young people may take for granted what perils could lie ahead.

"Oh gee...thats..uhhh..nice"

18 year old Jesse Logan had sent nude pictures of herself to a boyfriend. When he and Jesse broke up, he sent those pictures to other girls in their high school. Jesse was harassed by these girls, who called her a slut and a whore. Eventually the abuse was so bad, she stopped attending school. After a while, Jesse decided to speak up about her story on a Cincinnati television station to “make sure no else [would] ever have to go through this again”. Not even two months after the interview, she hung herself in her bedroom.

Though every generation tries to break free from constraints set by previous ones, and flirting is far from being inert, the lines of where flirtation becomes potentially dangerous can get blurred, especially when at a young and influential age. Moreover, with technology evolving at an ever-rapid speed, both parents and kids may not be fully aware of the repercussions their actions can have.

What many young people consider a modern way of flirting, is still a relatively loose concept in need of some proper stitching.

So it's getting closer to that time of year that many people wait anxiously for and no we're not talking about your birthday. We are talking about Apple iPhone release time. Every year, this being the 3rd annual, since 2007 Apple has been releasing a new iPhone in June/July. This year is shapping up to be no different. So we thought what is the best way to celebrate then try to get all the rumours together

Well it turns out we didn't have to. Our friends at wired.com were already did it for us.

The camera, GPS, compass and Google map combined will identify photo and inform about photo locations

Turn-by-turn directions

Keep in mind the above are all rumours. Every year there are tons of rumours. So we have about another month or so until we find out official what is going to be done for the next Apple iPhone, but like everyone PureMobile is eagerly waiting.

So this week brings us some really good news. The Nokia E75 NAM (North American version) is coming to PureMobile this week. That means that you'll be able to use North American HSDP or 3G with the phone rather then having to suffer on the slower EDGE network.

This is great news. This means all the goodies that come wiht the Nokia E75 will be finally fully available. You get the convenience of Nokia's first slider phone, Wi-Fi, MicroSD support with a 4GB card included.

...As usual, the colors, the contrast, as well as the quality of the image displayed are flawless. Add to that perfect sunlight eligibility and you get an excellent display that can meet any user’s expectations....

And in a review from MobileBurn the have a positive review of the keyboard

The QWERTY keyboard is extremely pleasurable to type on, with large keys and easy-to-read labels. Like the numeric keypad, the QWERTY keyboard's backlight is bright and even, illuminating even the outer keys. There is also some space between the top keys and the top half of the phone, so you shouldn't have any trouble hitting these top keys.

From the reviews this seems to be a very good phone and with the Nokia E75 NAM now released everyone can enjoy the phone

So thanks to both BoyGeniusReport.com and Crackberry.com it looks like we have another new Blackberry coming sometime this year. We've already heard about a Storm 2 coming out sometime this year and the Curve 8520, but not it looks like we have the Blackberry Onyx coming this year too.

The Blackberry Onyx is also being called the Driftwood and it is said to be part of the 96xx series of phones. This means that it is going to be a 3G phone and from the looks of the pictures it looks more like a Curve then a Bold.

From what is being said by BoyGeniusReport.com it looks like it will have some decent specs

Carbon fiber-esque back battery cover (the whole back is a carbon fiber pattern apparently)

The Onyx seems to have the same specs to the Curve 8900 and it's going to have 3G for T-Mobile in the US and it does seem like it will ship with the optical track ball that was introduced to everyone last week on teh Curve 8520.

The real question now is does RIM have too many phones on the market. Recently with the Bold 9000, Curve 8900, Pearl 8220 Flip, Curve 8520, Curve 83xx, Pearl 81xx, and now the Onyx 96xx we are selling a lot of phones on the market. Only time will tell how any of them will do but at present the Bold and Curve 8900 are some of the nicest ones RIM has produced to date.

So RIM has been on a real hot streak recently. They have been releasing a lot of phones recently, with the Bold, Storm and Curve 8900 no one can say they haven't been able to get their fix and now it looks like they are releasing another Blackberry phone.

This one is set to be a "low-end" phone. The new phone, Blackberry Curve 8520, looks to be released in the next few months as it is in testing phase now. The new Curve will be an upgrade to the old 8300 line but won't be as full featured as the higher end Curve 8900.

There was a full review done over at Crackberry with a testing unit. They down a full review and include that the specs for the phone are:

Edge device

320 by 240 display

256 megabytes of internal memory (same as 8900)

1150mAh battery

2 megapixel camera, no flash

Alright so there aren't many specs known at this point, but the phone is still in testing so more feature might become available later one. Some interesting things mentioned in the article though about the Curve 8520 are

No flash for the camera

No charging pins

No standard trackball

The above features all seem like they will be missing from the Blackberry Curve 8520. Most notably the trackball has been replaced by an optical trackball. Basically they got rid of the ball and made it a sensor. According to the article the implementation of it on the Curve 8520 seems to be pretty smooth.

Also another new feature is dedicated media buttons to play and pause your music on the phone.

The phone's casing is also "rubberized" which should make it a little more resistant to being dropped.

So the big question now are when will it be released? The fact that it is now being tested does show that it shouldn't be too much longer. Hopefully sooner then later we will be able to see this lower end Blackberry cell phone hit the market to give people another option.